June 20 - a week of bee beards, stings and a new queen

It's been an interesting week with the bees.

Hive #2 gets a new queen

Last week, I finally came to the conclusion that I was without a queen in the new hive (#2).  So thanks to Charles Andros in Alstead, NH, I was able to pick up a queen from him, and put it in the hive.  While doing that, I decided to remove the super I had added because we are just  not ready for that yet.  They need to lay some brood and perhaps no super will be needed all summer because they also need to draw out comb on new frames.  Currently there's a mix of old/new frames in that hive.  So they have a lot of work to do before making honey for my use.  They do seem to be making honey for their own use though.

The queen came in its cage with the candy plus but also a piece of tape covering the candy.  I left that on until today, making 4 days with the queen in the hive in the cage.  I did this to give the bees a bit more time to get used to the queen's pheronomes...so they don't kill her when she emerges. The tape prevented the bees from getting to the candy, and hence, the queen.

I just went to the hive to check and,thankfully the queen was still alive in the hive because I had the screened portion of the cage facing an empty frame.  NEVER DO THAT.  I was lucky she didn't die.
When I tried to pick up the cage to turn it, it fell to the bottom board toward the back.  Rather than try to reach my hand down there to move it, I left it there.  I will now wait until at least a few more days to see the outcome and hope she gets out and the hive becomes productive.

If it doesn't, I'm giving up on a second hive....at least for this year.

Hive #1 attacks me

It's probably not a good idea to deal with removing any frames from a super during a work day.  I take shortcuts then.  And shortcuts can get you lost...or stung, in the case of bees.

I hadn't been stung much this year which added to my cockiness in thinking I didn't need to take all the precautions.  In honey season, when I go to the hive, I always wear my full suit and bee gloves for protection. And Hive #1 is in honey season.

I generally wear my winter boots under the suit because, although hot, are really thick and no bee can sting through them.  Then the suit legs fit over the boot and I secure it with a strong elastic.  That is the right way to do it.

Well I didn't do that.  I took that shortcut and didn't get out the winter boots.  Instead I just covered my suit legs with a pair of socks and wore my gardening shoes.

The result was multiple sticks around my ankles and a few on my wrist  but mostly the ankles. I was feeling pretty resentful

Hive #1 had beards all over the front

When bees get too hot in the hive, they hangout outside along the front and maybe sides of the hive.  That's what I was seeing last week.

I knew my first super was full and I thought it was preventing any air flow in the hive so I wanted to remove at least a few frames of honey to give them some circulation in there.  I did that but it did cost me a bunch of stings.

Again, I took a shortcut. I didn't use my smoker and just grabbed my bee brush to brush off any bees and hundreds of bees were flying around me.  Angry.  I can't really blame them.

I plopped the two honey laden frames into the bin, covered it, and headed to the basement.  Then because I have no energy left, and no time, I put them into the freezer until I'm ready to extract more.

I think that I may try to extract in about a week.